For years, including the brilliant Chris Reeves films, we saw Kal El as Superman where Clark was the disguise
This is how it is described in Kill BIll, the way Tarantino sees it In those films we see Superman, who Kal El sees himself as, the omnipotent god flying round in his Kryptonian suit When he puts on the suit and glasses we know it is Superman in disguise - Perry, Lois, Jimmy all think Superman and Clark are two different people - we know this is Superman dressed up and messing around, acting clumsy, doing secret bullet catches Chris Reeves never played "Superman and Clark" because there was no Clark We see the younger Smallville Clark played by Geoff East, hiding his powers while racing trains The adult Clark is just Superman in disguise This show is the first time we see this flipped as a live action - there is a run of comics that uses this Clark is who he has been all his life, the person he is - in this version Clark Kent is the real personality and Superman is the disguise Superman is the suit that he puts on to allow him to use his powers in public "Superman" was never meant to become a character, an identity, that Clark had to play - and in the first series, the first episodes, we see him having difficulty with this, how to "play" the character now known as "Superman" when he has to speak in public Clark is who I am, Superman is what I can do - to flip the phrase the other way If he has never put on the suit and the "superman" character developed as we saw, he would still always be Clark, who he was raised to be---------------
The balcony scene in Batman v Superman after the bomb that vaporises everyone and leave him unmarked
He says to Lois
"Superman was never real"
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Writer John Byrne started a new run of the comics in 1986 that uses this premises - Clark is the real personality and Superman is the disguise
